THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM.
By Edison Driver
“AND this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. Our ideas of the Gospel, as Christ presented it, are very indefinite. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18, 19, R. V. All this was included in the Gospel, the good tidings, which He came to bring men. The wonderful power which He used in healing the sick, raising the dead, and controlling the forces of nature, was but a part of that same Gospel. We are apt to look on these manifestations as something apart from the real central Gospel of the kingdom. But let us see. Something like six thousand years ago, God created this world a part of His kingdom. He ruled it. Then He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have dominion.” So God let him have dominion, power to rule the earth, as His representative here in this part of the kingdom of heaven. Then sin entered the world and separated it from the rest of God’s kingdom. Satan was the king, and as king he tried to establish his kingdom firmly. To do this he has striven to keep his subjects ignorant in regard to the other country, because the other was a better country, and only through misrepresentation could he hope to retain his kingship over men. To this end he has bent the energies of his great mind from the first of sin’s dark course. In ignorance and death our world is an island separated from the great continent of God’s life and power. Men have lost sight of the true King and of the true kingdom. Mesmerized by Satan, they take this present world as their country, knowing nothing of the other. So when Christ came to preach the Gospel of the kingdom, He came to them that sat in darkness, yea, in the valley of the shadow of death. Matt. 4:16. He came to these captives of Satan, “to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.” Isa. 42:7, R. V. He came to be Immanuel, “God-with-us!” Why?—That man might get a true idea of God; that he might see the goodness, the character, the love of the true King. More: He came to reveal the true kingdom! Men could realize the nature of the true King, having seen Christ, His representative. But likewise they were to see the true kingdom, the better country! They must see it as verily as they must see the true King. Men do not go to a country simply because they are told that it has a good king. So Christ must bring not only the King, but also the kingdom to men, that they might with their eyes and ears—the senses which they had—have opportunity of seeing, of knowing again, the true kingdom, and comparing the two. So “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God.” Mark 1:14. He “went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them.” Matt. 4:23, 24. And when they accused Him of working by the power of Satan, He said, “If I cast out devils by the power of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” Matt. 12:28. Ah, yes, that was a part of the Gospel then, that men should see the kingdom of God right among them. Christ has been called “the second Adam,” and so He was. As Adam had dominion over all the earth and over the creatures that were in it (Gen. 1:26), the life of Jesus shows that He had the same power. The waves of the sea heard His voice, “Peace, be still.” The wind and the water obeyed. The men who witnessed the miracle marveled and wondered, but Jesus said, “O ye of little faith!” Did it indeed seem strange to them that He whom God had placed in the world to represent the King and the kingdom of heaven, should “have dominion,” should be able to exercise the power of God? It seems so. When the disciples were unable to perform a certain miracle, they asked Christ why it was so. He said, “Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you!” In the fulness of His faith, Christ brought back the lost dominion that men might see a glimpse of the better country than Adam had lost. But they said, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!” Man had forgotten what it was to be a man—to be “every inch a king!” And they have forgotten it now. The world needs the whole Gospel to-day as much as it did then. And moreover it is God’s purpose that the whole Gospel shall be proclaimed. For He says, “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. “And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16:15, 17, 18. They did so. “They went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” Verse 20. But as Paul said, some came in “who would pervert the Gospel of Christ.” Gal. 1:7. The church lost its power, and the Gospel of the kingdom is not preached as Christ preached it. This Gospel is yet to be preached. It is to be preached with power in our day. Let us then set no standard for ourselves short of being witnesses of this Gospel of the kingdom in its fulness.